All-in-one PLC and HMI delivers programming efficiency gains

Alana-Eco LLC, headquartered in the Ukraine, develops sophisticated, efficient technologies in the field of hydroponic crop cultivation. The company's main offering is the complex, fully automated EVA system that grows plants in a rotating aeroponic environment. This inventive approach maximises yield due to three factors: efficient use of space, a tightly-controlled automated environment, and the powerful effect of orbitropism to boost plant growth.

The complex application requirements of the EVA system spurred Alana-Eco to use Unitronics' Vision570 to replace the Mitsubishi controller that had been used during development.

In order to grow plants successfully from seedling to harvest-ready stage, EVA required the Vision570 to automate control of:

• Plant feeding: In an aeroponic hothouse, the plants are not grown in soil but in a non-soil nutrient solution in a substrate. This requires automated preparation of the nutrient and complete automation of the feeding cycle with regard to pH, EC, temperature and other factors. Alana-Eco implements a proprietary method of delivering nutrient solution to the substrate, which greatly reduces the amount of solution required.
• Environmental control: This includes general environmental conditions of temperature, misting, humidity levels and ventilation, plus strict maintenance of CO2 levels via CLC feedback control, with regard to the plant growth cycle.

Orbitropism factor (artificial gravity)

EVA houses the growing plants in a series of cassettes fixed within a rotating drum. The rotation of the drum around its axis continuously changes the gravitational direction and produces an effect known as orbitropism. This influences the release of auxins (plant hormones), affecting the duration of the sleeping and waking phases. The result is significant increase in plant growth.

According to Alana-Eco, in addition to performing the tasks listed above, the Vision570 filled other application requirements. For example, the V570 enabled easy management of the EVA system via the HMI screens displayed on the built-in colour touchscreen - as well as providing the ability to access the HMI application remotely via Ethernet Remote Access. Another plus was the Vision's broad support for data communication protocols such as MODBUS, RS485, RS232 and GSM. The ability to log, store and remotely access data to an SD card installed in the V570 was another factor in its favour.

Novikov Yuri, Alana-Eco's director, comments: "The Vision570 offered us more functionality when compared to the Mitsubishi alpha xl. The Vision570 has major advantages over the Mitsubishi alpha xl, especially in programming efficiency. When it comes to programming, Unitronics gives you boundless flexibility. Unitronics has enabled the Vison570 to be programmed to execute any task."

Follow the link for more information about the Unitronics Vision570.